Stelios Ioakim, also known as Joakem, started taking piano lessons from the age of 6 while at the same time being influenced by works from classical composers such as Chopin, Bach, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky among many others. As he grew older and his musical tastes expanded, he formed his first band at the age of 15 called Ethereal Black with whom they mainly performed rock covers but also original songs. Two years later he became a member of the alternative rock band Slightly Offensive as a keyboardist and vocalist. Slightly Offensive are active to this day, performing in various venues in Cyprus. During his service in the army he became the vocalist of yet another band called Tørment, a Melodic Death Metal band hailing from Limassol that performs original songs.

In 2014, he enrolled for a Law degree but soon discovered that this was not the path that he wished to follow in life. However, through this experience, he drew the inspiration to write the lyrics for his first single that will be mentioned further down. In 2015, Tørment released their two song EP, Mother and Ignominious. Later on, Stelios enrolled in the Music Technology and Performance course of DeMontfort University where he further developed his musical skills but also gained knowledge on film scoring, sound design, recording, mixing, music production and sound engineering. By the end of his degree he had accumulated invaluable experiences that would be imprinted onto his music.

With influences ranging from progressive rock, metal, ambient, classical, jazz and fusion music but also due to the revelation that he had during the time he was studying Law, Joakem went on to write, compose and record his first single called “The Path”. On November of 2018 he released his second single “Generation Z” with a lyric video. December 7th marked the release of his debut progressive rock album “Mind Matter”.